Jobs could be on line in final month

Steve Mason #35 of the Philadelphia Flyers stops a shot in the second period against the New Jersey Devils on March 8, 2015 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

Steve Mason #35 of the Philadelphia Flyers stops a shot in the second period against the New Jersey Devils on March 8, 2015 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. (Elsa / Getty Images)

Wayne FishOf Calkins Media

Now that the Flyers’ playoff hopes are all but history, it might be the juncture to start rolling out those old time-worn “play for pride’’ mantras.

And to those you might add, “play for jobs.’’

We’ve already seen the Flyers part ways with a coach (goaltending instructor Jeff Reese) and two players (Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn).

One could make the case all three would still be here if the Flyers had performed up to expectations this year.

But that hasn’t been the case and now these final 15 games, beginning with a home contest against Dallas on Tuesday night, might go a long way toward determining what general manager Ron Hextall does at the end of the season.

If his team continues to play with passion and purpose, that might convince Hextall to bring back coach Craig Berube for another season.

However, if the Flyers go in the tank and look like they’re just going through the motions, perhaps even more changes than were originally planned might occur.

“We know we ought to be better,’’ Wayne Simmonds said. “I said at the end of the day, we have to compete harder, we have to be better as a team.

“Each man has to go back and look in the mirror. You have to be playing the right way yourself before you can judge anybody else.’’

The road has just killed the Flyers this year. It’s the second week in March and they’re still stuck on nine wins away from home compared with 19 at the Wells Fargo Center. That’s simply too great a disparity for a contender.

Ryan White came to the Flyers as a free agent after a stint with Montreal, an organization which simply won’t tolerate anything but the best.

“It’s a tough time of the year, you have to play well for 60 minutes and we haven’t quite figured that out yet,’’ White said.

“We’ve been in deep trouble all year. (At one point) we were 13 points back. We have to stick together and keep chipping away.’’

Goaltender Steve Mason has fought through injuries to post one of the best save percentages in the NHL.

“Guys are competing,’’ Mason insisted. “But at the same time, we do make mistakes and (like in Sunday’s 5-2 loss at New Jersey) tonight they cost us.’’

The Flyers now have a negative goal differential of minus-18. If that number stays at or close to where it is now at season’s end, it will be the worst negative differential (barring that 2006-07 disaster) since the early ‘90s.

In other words, the Flyers can’t fool anybody. Even if they had garnered all four points against Boston and New Jersey over the weekend (leaving them two points out), they still wouldn’t be viewed as a threat in the postseason.

There have been several times this season when Berube was asked about how he feels about his job security, including when they hit bottom at 18-22-7 back on Jan. 19.

He indicated he wasn’t losing any sleep over it.

Since then, the Flyers have gone 10-4-6 but still find themselves seven points behind Boston with the Bruins holding two games in hand.

The Flyers play seven of their next nine games against the Western Conference and the other two are outside their division, so it’s difficult to make up ground when their aren’t many “four-point’ games left on the schedule.

Regardless of the opponent, the Flyers need to look very interested in their competition over the last month.